Adjustable glazing for motor vehicles

ABSTRACT

An orientable glazing for a vehicle having a glazing frame which has an attachment flange ( 3 ). The glazing includes a toughened window glass ( 4 ), a run of elastically deformable adhesive ( 18 ) along a part of the periphery of the window glass ( 4 ) for bonding the window glass ( 4 ) to the attachment flange ( 3 ), a profiled elastomer seal ( 12 ) laid against the window glass at least in that part of the periphery of the window glass ( 4 ) that is not covered by the run of adhesive ( 18 ), and an opening and closing mechanism ( 24 ), wherein the run of adhesive is along the front edge ( 5 ), along the upper edge, along the contour of the upper rear corner ( 20 ) of the window glass ( 4 ), and along an upper segment (A) of the rear edge ( 6 ) of the window glass ( 4 ), and wherein the opening and closing mechanism acts in the region of the lower rear corner ( 22 ) of the window glass ( 4 ).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to orientable glazing for motor vehicles,attached to a glazing frame which has an attachment flange, andcomprising a toughened window glass, a run of elastically deformableadhesive along part of the periphery of the window glass for bonding thewindow glass to the attachment flange, a profiled elastomer seal laidagainst the window glass at least in that part of the periphery of thewindow glass that is not covered by the run of adhesive, and an openingand closing mechanism acting at a point on the window glass that liesopposite the run of adhesive.

Pivoting orientable glazing of this type is already known from documentDE-U-8709446. In this known orientable glazing, the run of adhesive actsas a hinge and is installed along the vertical front edge of the windowglass. Along the other edges of the window glass, there is a preformedprofiled seal fixed to the edge of the window glass.

Document U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,153 discloses orientable glazing for motorvehicles, in which a run of adhesive laid along the upper horizontaledge of the window glass acts as a hinge, the opening and closingmechanism acting on the middle of the lower edge of the window glass. Inthis case too, the run of adhesive extends only in a straight line alongthe middle of the upper edge of the window glass and ends before therounded corner region which, in the same way as the remaining part ofthe periphery of the window glass, is sealed by a simple tubular sealwhich, for its part, is laid on the window frame flange.

Known orientable glazings of this type have specific drawbacks.Specifically, all the known embodiments have in common the fact thatwhen the glazing is in the open position in a motor vehicle travellingin the rain, it does not prevent the rain from coming in. Furthermore,known orientable glazing has the drawback that the window glass, whenopen, shakes, particularly when the vehicle is travelling at high speed,and thus creates annoying noises.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the invention is to improve orientable glazing of the typedescribed in the preamble in such a way that when in the open positionin a moving vehicle, it is, on the one hand, sufficiently sealed againstrain coming in and, on the other hand, does not shake about annoyingly,particularly at high speed.

The orientable glazing according to the invention is characterized inthat the run of adhesive is along the vertical front edge, along theupper edge and, following the contour of the upper rear corner of thewindow glass, along an upper segment of the rear edge of the windowglass, and in that the mechanism for opening and closing the orientableglazing acts in the region of the lower rear corner of the window glass.

Unlike the known orientable glazing, in the case of the orientablewindow glazing according to the invention, the run of adhesive is alsolaid along part of the periphery of the window glass in which the run ofadhesive does not in any way act as a hinge when opening and closing theglazing. On the contrary, when opening the glazing the run isexclusively, or at least for the most part, made to stretch at thispoint. Not only will the angle through which the window glass is pivotedin this case cause the elastic stretching of this part of the run ofadhesive, but also, part of the bending moment exerted on the windowglass by the opening mechanism will also, to a certain extent, lead toelastic bending of the window glass, which will further increase themechanical rigidity of the window glass when in its open position. Giventhat the window glass is made of toughened glass, the opening mechanismmay, if the bonding is relatively secure, exert a relatively highbending moment on the window glass, which gives a particularly stableconstruction.

The orientable glazing according to the invention also has thefavourable effect that, even in the open position, it is remarkably wellsealed against the ingress of rain and airborne dust, because the frontedge in the direction of travel, the upper edge and the upper part ofthe rear edge, in the direction of travel, of the window glass areconnected to the vehicle bodywork from one end to the other in a sealedmanner.

The length over which the run of adhesive extends along the verticalrear edge of the window glass is advantageously determined on a case bycase basis as a function of the geometry of the window and of theconfiguration of the run of adhesive. In general, the length of thissegment may be of the order of from 10 to 40%, especially 15 to 30%,particularly 15 to 25%, of the total length of this vertical rear edge.When using a commonplace bonding system, for example a bonding systembased on a system of polyurethane with a component which cures under theeffect of moisture, the length of this segment of the run of adhesivemay be from about a quarter to a third of the total length of thisvertical rear edge of the window glass.

According to another advantageous aspect of the invention, the profiledelastomer seal laid along the edge of the window glass has two sealinglips substantially parallel to one another, namely a long lip extendingover the space that separates the periphery of the window glass from thewindow frame, and a short lip resting against the window frame in theregion of the angle between the window frame and the attachment flange.Whereas the long outer sealing lip constitutes sufficient protectionagainst normal splashes of water in rainy weather, the short innersealing lip presses against the window frame with a bending stress whichis higher because of its smaller size and increases the sealing effectto the extent that a good seal is also ensured under high loading, as isinevitable, for example, during cleaning with a high-pressure water jet.

Advantageous aspects of the invention will emerge from the dependentclaims and from the description below of one preferred embodiment of theinvention given with reference to the appended drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawing,

FIG. 1 is an external view of orientable glazing mounted in the windowframe of a motor vehicle by bonding;

FIG. 2 is a section on II—II of FIG. 1, and

FIG. 3 is a section on III—III of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The glazing depicted is an orientable rear car glazing. In the sheetmetal of the bodywork 1 there is the window frame (that defines anaperture) 2 which has an attachment flange 3 for the window glass 4. Theedge 5 of the window glass 4 is the front edge, located facing the frontof the car, while the edge 6 is rear edge of the window glass, locatedfacing the rear of the car. The window glass 4 is made of thermallytoughened glass and is equipped along the entire edge of its perimeter,with a decorative surround 10 made of opaque enamel which has beenapplied by serigraphy and baked on during the heating needed to toughenthe window glass.

The window glass 4 comprises a peripheral sealing surround 12 made ofelastomer laid along the entire periphery of the window glass 4 andwhich has preferably been moulded directly onto the window glass 4. Thissealing surround 12 may be moulded onto the window glass 4 using theinjection-moulding technique or the extrusion technique, the surface ofthe glass or the surface of the decorative surround 10 possibly beingtreated beforehand by applying an appropriate adhesion promoter so thata good quality durable bond between the sealing surround 12 and thewindow glass or decorative surround 10 is guaranteed. Among theelastomers that are suitable for the sealing surround 12 are, inparticular, PVC, polyurethane systems or thermoplastic elastomers basedon polyolefin such as isotactic polypropylene and/orethylene-propylene-diene rubber. The forming of sealing surrounds ofthis kind using these materials is part of the state of the art.

The sealing surround 12 has two radially projecting sealing lips, namelya long sealing lip 13 which is closer to the surface of the glass, and ashort sealing lip 14 which extends parallel to the first one.

In a particular embodiment, the long lip 13 is at least about twice aslong as the short lip 14.

When the window glass is mounted, the long sealing lip 13 is pressedalong the window frame 2, and extends over the space between theperipheral edge of the window glass 4 and the wall 15 facing it. Theshort lip 14 which, because of its shorter length, is less flexible,bears against the base of the window frame with a correspondinglygreater force and provides a good seal even under high water pressure.

Laid beside the sealing surround 12 directly on part of the periphery ofthe window glass is a run of adhesive 18 by means of which the windowglass 4 is bonded to the attachment flange 3 in these peripheralregions.

Alternatively, the run of adhesive could be deposited on an appropriatesurface of the sealing surround.

The thickness of this run of adhesive 18 will be chosen as a function ofthe rubbery elastic properties of the material forming the adhesive sothat the necessary torsional and stretching stresses in the run ofadhesive lead only to elastic deformation. As far as the material ofwhich the adhesive is formed is concerned, materials based onpolyurethane systems curing in moisture which are commonly used formounting windows in automotive vehicle bodywork are already proven. Thethickness of the run of adhesive 18 should preferably not be less than 5mm and will preferably be 6 to 8 mm.

Along the front edge 5 of the window glass, the run of adhesive 18extends practically over the entire height of the window glass 4 andends near the lower edge of the window glass. Above, the run of adhesive18 extends uninterrupted along the entire upper edge of the window glassas far as beyond the upper rear corner 20 of the window glass 4 andalong the upper segment A of the rear edge 6 of the window glass. Thesegment A represents about 15 to 30% of the total length of this edge ofthe window glass, namely about 60 to 100 mm.

An opening and closing mechanism 24 of known and conventional typedepicted diagrammatically in FIG. 3 acts on the window glass 4 at thelower rear corner 22 so as to cause the window glass to elastically bendabout an axis which is angled with respect to the upper edge. At thispoint, the window glass 4 may have a hole intended for coupling thisdevice to the window glass. As an alternative, the window glass 4 may,however, also be equipped at this point with a flat deposit 26 of enamelto which the coupling element 28 of the closing mechanism is fixed bybonded assembly.

What is claimed is:
 1. An orientable glazing for motor vehicles having aglazing frame (2) which has an attachment flange (3), said glazingcomprising a toughened window glass (4), a run of elastically deformableadhesive (18) along part of the periphery of the window glass (4) forbonding the window glass to the attachment flange (3), a profiledelastomer seal (12) laid against the window glass at least in that partof the periphery of the window glass (4) that is not covered by the runof adhesive (18), and an opening and closing mechanism (24) acting at apoint near that part of the periphery of the window glass that is notcovered by the run of adhesive, wherein the part of the periphery of thewindow glass including the run of adhesive (18) is along a front edge(5), along an upper edge, along a contour of an upper rear comer (20) ofthe window glass (4), and along an upper segment (A) of a rear edge (6)of the window glass (4), and wherein the opening and closing mechanism(24) is situated to act in the region of a lower rear corner (22) of thewindow glass (4) so as to cause the window glass to elastically bendabout an axis which is angled with respect to the upper edge.
 2. Theorientable glazing according to claim 1, characterized in that the runof adhesive, on the upper segment (A) of the rear edge (6) of the windowglass (4) represents 10 to 40% of a length of the rear edge (6) of thewindow glass (4).
 3. The orientable glazing according to claim 2,wherein the run of adhesive on the upper segment (A) of the rear edge(6) of the window glass (4) represents 15 to 25% of the length of therear edge (6) of the window glass (4).
 4. The orientable glazingaccording to either claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the profiledseal (12) is laid against the entire periphery of the window glass (4).5. The orientable glazing according to either claim 1 or 2,characterized in that the profiled seal (12) is laid directly onto thewindow glass (4) and in that the run of adhesive (18) is laid parallelto and beside the profiled seal (12).
 6. The orientable glazingaccording to either claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the profiledseal (12) is made of a material selected from the group consisting of apolyolefin thermoplastic elastomer, polyvinyl chloride, a polyurethanesystem, or a combination thereof.
 7. The orientable glazing according toeither claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the profiled seal (12) hastwo sealing lips (13, 14) arranged parallel to one another, wherein thesealing lip (13) closest to the surface of the glass is longer than, theother sealing lip (14).
 8. The orientable glazing according to claim 7,wherein the sealing lip closest to the surface of the glass is at leastalmost twice as long as the other sealing lip.